Has Malhotra quit Lok Sabha? BJP says 'yes' and 'no'

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader V.K. Malhotra has resigned from the Lok Sabha following his election to the Delhi assembly, a party spokesman said Tuesday. But another party leader said he was only preparing to quit along with six other MPs.

The BJP's parliamentary wing decided earlier Tuesday that all its seven MPs who won in the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi would give up their Lok Sabha membership.

Malhotra, a five time MP and deputy leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, was the BJP's chief ministerial candidate for Delhi. But the BJP won just 23 seats against the Congress' 43 in the 70-member legislature.

'All the seven MPs will give their resignations to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee before Dec 22,' the BJP's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Santosh Gangwar, told IANS.

But BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said: 'The seven MPs have resigned and we also had a farewell party for them today.'

Another party source added: 'It was the wish of (senior leader) L.K. Advani that all the MPs elected to the assemblies should resign their Lok Sabha seats and be with their assemblies.'

Four MPs won in Madhya Pradesh and one each in Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

The BJP MPs who won from Madhya Pradesh are Gauri Shankar Chaturbhuj Bisen (Balaghat), Neeta Pateriya (Seoni), Sartaj Singh Chhatwal (Hoshangabad) and Ramkrishna Kusmaria (Khajuraho).

The MP from Udaipur (Rajasthan) is Kiran Maheshwari, from south Delhi (Delhi) is Vijay Kumar Malhotra and from Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) is Punnulal Mohale.